WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 Why do I have to? 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:04.000 There's so many commands. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:06.000 But why should I obey God? 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.000 Why should I obey God? 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:15.000 Johnny reminded me of a video I saw the other day of someone interviewing a few Olympic athletes. 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:22.000 ! The athletes were asked two questions. Number one, how much do you train? How much do you train? 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.000 Who here likes to wake up at 5 a.m. every day just to torture your body for a few hours? 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:36.000 I certainly don't. But these athletes, 6-7 days a week, a few hours a day, a few times a day, would train. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:39.000 The second question they were asked is this. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:43.000 How often do you drink alcohol? How often do you drink alcohol? 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.000 Any guesses for what they said? What do you think they said? 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:50.000 Yeah, nothing. Never. Almost never. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:56.000 And why is that? Because they know that alcohol hurts their bodies. It will hurt their performance. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:58.000 So why do athletes do this? 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:04.000 Some athletes are sponsored. Maybe they're endorsed by Nike or the Hong Kong Sports Federation. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:07.000 And have contracts requiring them to train. 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.000 And they pull up the contract and it says, 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.000 Thou shalt train 30 hours a week. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:13.000 Or thou shalt not drink alcohol. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:16.000 Or thou shalt slurp on egg yolks and drink smoothies. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:19.000 Maybe that's what the contract says. I don't know. I've never received a contract. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:26.000 But some athletes are bound by this contract, by the written law, and they have to obey it. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.000 That's one way that athletes train. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:33.000 But I don't think that's the mindset that brings top athletes to the podium. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:39.000 Olympians, they train hard. They discipline themselves because they love their sport. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:43.000 They love basketball. They love running. They love gymnastics. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:49.000 And they want the prize. The countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears abstaining. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.000 It's all worth it when they hear their anthem playing. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.000 They see the flag being raised. And they have gold around their necks. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:00.000 And that's the same reason why we obey God. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.000 That's the reason behind our Christian obedience. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:08.000 We don't obey because we're bound by contract, because we're bound by law, by a set of rules. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:11.000 We obey because we love God, because we have faith in Christ. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:14.000 We believe in Him. And we want this reward. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:19.000 We believe His promises. And we're looking forward to what He promises us. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.000 And that's what the book of Galatians is about. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:27.000 Galatians is a letter from the Apostle Paul to the Church of Galatia. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.000 And speaking of the top hits of the Bible, let me tell you about Galatians. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:36.000 Galatians hits hard. Paul doesn't pull any punches. He is absolutely scathing. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:41.000 And the reason why is because the Galatians turned away from the most important thing. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Paul says, I'm astonished that you turned away from the Gospel. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.000 I'm astonished. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:51.000 In Galatians, Paul defends an essential element of the Gospel. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:56.000 And that's this. Justification by faith in Christ, apart from works. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:02.000 We are justified, meaning that we are forgiven and counted righteous by God, not because of what we do. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.000 We can't be justified by our efforts to keep God's commands. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:12.000 We can't earn righteousness by following the contract, because we can't keep the terms of the contract. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.000 We're justified only through faith in Jesus. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:21.000 Counted righteous only because Jesus died for our sins, died in our place, bearing the punishment and guilt that we deserve. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:24.000 And he rose from the dead. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:28.000 There's only one name under heaven and earth by which we may be saved. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:33.000 Not Cubon, not Ellen, not Tony, not Gabriel. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.000 Only Jesus. 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:38.000 There's only one name and that's Jesus. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:46.000 Now in Galatians 5, Paul says that just as we were justified by faith, we now also obey God by faith. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:52.000 There's a lot of commands in the Bible, but the commands aren't a chain around our necks or handcuffs behind our backs. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:57.000 The commands are like the string on a kite that ties us to the person playing with the kite. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:04.000 The person enjoying the kite and holds us so that we may be free to fly, free to soar, free to do like loops and stuff. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.000 And free to put smiles on other people's faces. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.000 That's what God's commands are like. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:15.000 Also, Olympians, they train and abstain by their own exertion and efforts. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.000 They work hard on their own, but that's not how Christians obey God. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:20.000 We have a helper. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.000 We have the spirit of God in us, the third person of the Trinity. 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:28.000 God himself dwells in us and dwells in all who are in Christ. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:34.000 And his spirit changes our hearts, transforms us and empowers us to do what is pleasing to God. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:47.000 So today, as we look at the fruit of the spirit, let's keep in mind this, the point in verse 16, that we ought to walk by the spirit, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:51.000 Christians do not obey God by keeping the law using brute strength. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:57.000 We obey by following the spirit, walking with him, keeping in step with him. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:01.000 Verse 18 says, if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:07.000 As we walk by the spirit, he, he produces in us the fruit of the spirit that pleases God. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:12.000 He changes our hearts to hate sin, to love God, to do what is good. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:20.000 So as we go through the fruit of spirit, let's keep in mind that Christian obedience is not done by keeping the law, but by following the spirit as he leads our hearts. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:26.000 So with that said, the plan for today is that we'll, we'll click, we'll quickly run through the fruit of the spirit. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:31.000 And then we'll take a step back and make a few general observations, tying them all together. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:32.000 Does that sound good? 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:33.000 Okay. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:37.000 Now the fruit of the spirit, the first fruit of the spirit is love. 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.000 It's not without reason that love comes first. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:41.000 Love is the chief fruit. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.000 It's the one that ties all the fruit together. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:49.000 Paul says in Galatians 5, 13, for you were called to freedom, brother. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:56.000 Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.000 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:01.000 You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:03.000 Love is the greatest commandment in the Bible. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:08.000 All the other commands, everything God demands of us boils down to this. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:10.000 Love God and love others. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.000 What is love? 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:13.000 Love is first something that we feel. 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:15.000 Love is when we're attracted to something. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.000 When we take delight and we take interest in something. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.000 Love then moves us to action. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.000 We act according to what we love. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:25.000 Right? 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:28.000 For example, I love Jojo, my fiancee, and... 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:33.000 Because I love her, I might give her a hug. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:34.000 Okay? 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:38.000 Or I might buy her flowers. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:39.000 Right? 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:43.000 Now, she may have asked me to buy her flowers once or twice. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:46.000 But it's not a command. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:47.000 Right? 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:53.000 And actually, if I bought her flowers just because she commanded me to do it, 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:56.000 I don't want to see how that turns out. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:59.000 Yeah, it's not good. 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:00.000 And the same is true. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:01.000 That's not love. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:03.000 That doesn't please her. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:04.000 Right? 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:09.000 And the same is true when we obey God out of obligation without love. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:12.000 That's not how God wants us to obey him. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:13.000 We do it out of love. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:19.000 Love is a disposition of the heart first that then expresses itself in action. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:21.000 And God shows us true love. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:23.000 1 John 4.10. 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:25.000 We went through this a few months ago. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:26.000 It says, 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:27.000 In this is love. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:32.000 Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.000 God shows us what real love looks like. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:36.000 Love is sacrificial. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:38.000 It seeks the good of others. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:42.000 God loved us so much that he sent his son to die for us. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:44.000 And do you love? 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:50.000 It's easy to love when it's convenient, but the true test of whether we love is when it costs us. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:51.000 It costs God his son. 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:53.000 That's how much he loved us. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.000 And 1 John 4.11 says, 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:00.000 If God so loves us, we also ought to love one another. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:03.000 Love expresses itself in action, both big and small. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:08.000 Maybe you need to do something big, but small things are a good first step. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:14.000 I've had a hectic few weeks, as Julian said, and I felt loved when people reached out to encourage me. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:16.000 It can be as small as that. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:18.000 Let us love one another. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:19.000 Love. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:20.000 Love. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.000 That's the first fruit of the spirit. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:24.000 The next one is joy. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.000 What comes to mind when you think of joy? 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.000 I think of inside out. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:32.000 There's this bubbly, cheery emotion that's always happy and positive. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:35.000 But Christian joy is more than that. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:38.000 It's deeper than a shallow happiness. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.000 Christian joy doesn't depend on circumstances. 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:44.000 It's a peaceful happiness that shines in every circumstance. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:46.000 And how's that possible? 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:52.000 When I think of joy, I also think of Philippians, one of Paul's other letters. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:56.000 Philippians is one of Paul's most joyful letters, in fact. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:57.000 And he praises God. 00:08:57.000 --> 00:08:58.000 He's rejoicing. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:08:59.000 He's hopeful. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:00.000 He's full of joy. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:06.000 But it's interesting that Paul writes Philippians when he's in jail, in a low. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:08.000 He's in jail. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:12.000 He had joy even in the worst of circumstances. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:16.000 And that's possible because joy is related to love. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.000 Joy stems from love. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:21.000 Joy is a celebration, really, of what we love. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:22.000 Right? 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:28.000 When Johnny was in the Olympics, no one told him to cheer when Djokovic scored a point. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:31.000 But no, he cheered because he loves tennis. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:32.000 He loves Djokovic. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:35.000 He probably stood up and cheered in joy whenever he scored a point. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:36.000 Right? 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:42.000 Or when a husband loves his wife, he feels joy. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:45.000 A child smiles at his parents, his grandparents. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:46.000 They feel joy. 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:49.000 Or when friends feel, they see each other. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:50.000 There's joy. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:52.000 Because they love one another. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:57.000 See, worldly joy doesn't last because sometimes Djokovic loses. 00:09:57.000 --> 00:09:58.000 Not this time. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.000 But maybe your friends and family will disappoint you. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:07.000 But we can have joy in every situation because we love a God that never fails. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:12.000 We have unshakable joy because Jesus died for us. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:13.000 There's this unshakable truth. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:17.000 Joy in every circumstance because our names are written in heaven. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:20.000 Because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.000 See, what are the things that you find joy in? 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.000 Family, friends, career, fame. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:31.000 These are good things, but they will disappoint you like broken cisterns as we talked about. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:33.000 God is better than these things. 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:36.000 He is the only one that can hold your joy. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:39.000 Love him with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:41.000 And then we will have true joy. 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:43.000 That's love and joy. 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.000 Next up is peace. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:47.000 What is peace? 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:50.000 Peace was God's design for us from the beginning. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.000 Peace is a state of quiet well-being. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:56.000 There was peace in the Garden of Eden. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:58.000 Adam and Eve, they walked with God. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:00.000 They had every need taken care of. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:01.000 Work was easy. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:03.000 They just reached out, grabbed a fruit, just not from that one tree. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:05.000 It was easy. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:08.000 They lived in the presence of God and walked with him. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.000 But sin destroys peace. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:13.000 There's no peace for the wicked. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:18.000 Sin broke our relationship with God and brought death and suffering into this world. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:20.000 And that's why we need Jesus. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:23.000 See, Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:24.000 Romans 5 says, 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:29.000 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:35.000 Because Jesus died for us, we know that the sovereign God of the whole universe, he is for us. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:37.000 He provides for us. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:42.000 And we can look forward when Jesus returns and he restores the peace that we were meant to have. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:44.000 When there's no more tears, no more pain. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:47.000 Where we will be God's people, he will be our God. 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:51.000 The peace that the spirit brings, frees us from anxiety. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:12:00.000 We don't have to be anxious about everything when we know that God's watching over us, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we will let a request be made known to God. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:05.000 And then his peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:08.000 We can cast our anxieties on him because he cares for us. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:11.000 Love, joy, peace. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:13.000 Next, we have patience. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:20.000 The King James Version translates patience instead as long suffering, long suffering. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:26.000 Now, as common as in the King James, no one uses this word anymore, but I quite like it in this case. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.000 Patience is more than just waiting. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:29.000 It is long suffering. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:34.000 It's tolerating suffering and provocation for a long time. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:37.000 And God displays his patience with us. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:40.000 When we sin, we provoke God all the time. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:43.000 He promised Adam and Eve, the day you eat of this fruit of the tree, you will die. 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:45.000 Surely you will die. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:53.000 But yet he is merciful and gracious to us, slow to anger, patient, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:56.000 When do you need to show patience? 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:59.000 For me, it's as simple as when people stand on the left of the escalator. 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:05.000 But also it takes patience to pray for our friends and family for years, for them to know Christ. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:10.000 May the Spirit lead us to display the patience that God showed us. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:13.000 Love, joy, peace, patience. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:14.000 Next is kindness. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:18.000 Kindness is being helpful and seeking the good of others. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.000 Kindness is benevolent and it's generous. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:23.000 And see how kindness relates to love? 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:27.000 Love seeks the good of others and kindness is the display of that. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:29.000 Kindness is an expression of love. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:31.000 In another way, it's love acted out. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:32.000 It's love in action. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:33.000 That's kindness. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:35.000 After kindness is goodness. 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:37.000 And goodness is straightforward. 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.000 We don't really need to overcomplicate things. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:41.000 Goodness is simply being good. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:44.000 It's having high moral character and worth. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.000 Goodness. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:48.000 And what I want us to notice is that the fruit of the Spirit is good. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:56.000 As we walk by the Spirit, the attributes, the characteristics that the Spirit brings us, that he produces in us, those are good things. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:01.000 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:03.000 What fault can you find in those fruit? 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:06.000 What can you say to someone that displays these fruits? 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:10.000 That's why verse 23 says, against such thing there is no law. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:16.000 When we produce the fruit of the Spirit, there's no law saying you can't love, you can't be kind, you can't have peace. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.000 Against such fruit there's no law. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:21.000 The Spirit leads us in what is good. 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:24.000 My shepherd, he makes me lie down in green pastures. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:25.000 He leads me beside still waters. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:26.000 He restores my soul. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:30.000 Why wouldn't we want to follow the Spirit? 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:33.000 Why would we instead choose to go our own way? 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:36.000 Let us walk by the Spirit because he produces in us what is good. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:41.000 So love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:43.000 And next up is faithfulness. 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:48.000 Faithfulness is the quality of being reliable, dependable, and trustworthy. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:51.000 If you are faithful, then you will keep your word. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.000 You'll be good for what you promise. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.000 You will follow through on what you say. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:01.000 Faithfulness is the fruit of the Spirit because God is faithful. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:05.000 He is true and he can't lie and he will do what he promises. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.000 And I'm thankful that God is faithful, that we can take him at his word. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:10.000 Right? 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:13.000 What good is it if Jesus maybe died? 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:18.000 If he maybe rose from the dead, if I call on him, I might be saved. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:21.000 Do you promise that I may be forgiven? 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:28.000 No, we have the unshakable promise that we are saved because Jesus died and rose from the grave. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.000 Because God is faithful. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:31.000 We can take him at his word. 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:37.000 That's why we can hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering because he who promised is faithful. 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:40.000 How terrible would it be if God weren't faithful? 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:43.000 We'd have no hope. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:45.000 And we represent him. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.000 So let also our yes be yes and our no be no. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:51.000 After faithfulness, there's gentleness. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:54.000 And we've said it before, gentleness isn't the same as weakness. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.000 Gentleness isn't weakness. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.000 You can be both strong and gentle at the same time. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:03.000 A few months ago, I went with Young Life to Thailand and we saw some elephants. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:06.000 And they weighed maybe 5,000 kilograms and were twice my height. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:08.000 They were huge things. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.000 They could have mauled me or stepped on me and there's nothing I could do to stop them. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:13.000 But they were gentle. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:18.000 With the strength, they didn't use it to harm us, but they played with us. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:21.000 They carried us around. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:25.000 They used the strength not for harm, but to serve us, to connect with us. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:27.000 And that's gentleness. 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:32.000 And we use our strength for the good of others, to serve others, to build others up. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:39.000 We have this example in Jesus who is God and had all the power of God, who commands angels' armies. 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:43.000 But like a lamb led to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:46.000 When he was mocked, when they drove nails in his hand, he didn't strike back. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:53.000 He humbled himself and used his strength to serve us, to die for our sins. 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:59.000 And so when our families, our coworkers, classmates, maybe they make fun of you for what you believe. 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:04.000 Or when our parents, girlfriend, husband, they say that one thing, there's always this one thing that pushes our buttons. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.000 Let us walk by the Spirit. 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:10.000 Follow the example that we have in Jesus. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.000 And we can respond in gentleness. 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:15.000 That's gentleness. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:17.000 Lastly, we have self-control. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:20.000 And I'll keep this brief because we'll talk more about self-control later. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:25.000 Self-control is the ability to restrain ourselves, restrain our impulses and emotions. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.000 It's really, as the name suggests, self-control is the ability to control ourselves. 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:33.000 When you have self-control, you're not led by every impulse and desire you have. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:34.000 You can control yourself. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:40.000 You can have a sober second thought and then choose to act, not just on your impulses. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:48.000 So the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:50.000 It's a long list and we went through it quickly. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:59.000 And maybe you didn't relate to every fruit, but I pray that the Spirit this week will bring to mind one or two of these fruit that we can practically live out this week. 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:02.000 So that was a quick tour of the fruit of the Spirit individually. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:09.000 Now let's take a step back, zoom out, and make a few observations at this passage as a whole. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:12.000 And the first observation I'll make is that we couldn't do it. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:13.000 We couldn't do it. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:15.000 We can't produce this fruit on our own. 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:18.000 We were all sinners dead in our sins. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:25.000 As Alex read out in Ephesians 2, we are dead in the trespasses and sins we once walked, following the course of the world, the prince of the power of the air. 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.000 We were dead. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:34.000 We were following the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:37.000 That's what we were. 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:40.000 And Paul mentions the desires of the flesh in verse 16. 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:45.000 He uses the term flesh to refer to the sinful nature that we all inherit. 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.000 There's a laundry list of sins starting from verse 19. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:59.000 The works of the flesh, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and et cetera. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:00.000 Things like these. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:05.000 And maybe we haven't done all these things, but at least some of them. 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:10.000 And the problem in verse 21 is that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:13.000 Those who follow the desires of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God. 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:17.000 Punishment for sin, any breaking of the law is death. 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:18.000 We couldn't obey God. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:19.000 We couldn't do it. 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:22.000 We couldn't do it, but Jesus did it. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:24.000 Jesus did it for us. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:25.000 We couldn't keep the law. 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.000 And so God sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:34.000 He died the death that we deserve, took the punishment and guilt that we deserved. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:36.000 That's Jesus on the cross. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:40.000 God poured out all the wrath on him that should have been on us. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:41.000 And so the debt is paid. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:42.000 Our sins are forgiven. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:44.000 The guilt is gone. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:49.000 And on the third day, the spirit raised Jesus from the dead and the same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:53.000 As we sung about, he dwells in us and gives life to us also. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:56.000 That's the promise for all who believe in Jesus. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:00.000 Forgiveness of sins, crediting of righteousness, this dwelling, empowering of the spirit. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:03.000 We couldn't do it, but Jesus did it for us. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:11.000 And if you haven't put your faith in Jesus, if you're trying to do it on your own, if you're trying to earn righteousness on your own, why keep trying to do it on your own? 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:12.000 You can't. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:13.000 Put your faith in Jesus today. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:15.000 Believe in him and find life. 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.000 We couldn't do it, but Jesus did it for us. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:21.000 And now we can do it by the spirit. 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:22.000 Now we can do it by the spirit. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:26.000 There's a reason why all this is called the fruit of the spirit. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:33.000 It's because Jesus, his spirit, he dwells in us and transforms us to be more like him. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:40.000 All the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:43.000 These are all the attributes of God. 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:45.000 These are all part of God's character. 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:47.000 It's not a list of things to do. 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:50.000 It's not just a list of things to do. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:51.000 Love. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:52.000 God loved us. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:53.000 He so loved us. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:54.000 He sent his son to die for us. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:55.000 Patience. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:58.000 God is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but also reach repentance. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:20:59.000 Faithfulness. 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:01.000 He is faithful and just to forgive our sins. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:02.000 Right? 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:08.000 This is not a list of commands to follow, but it's a list of reasons why we should praise God. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:10.000 It's a list of God's manifold perfections. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:13.000 The fruit of the spirit are attributes of God. 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:20.000 And the good news of the gospel is that we have the privilege, not just to worship God for these things, but we get to share in them by his spirit. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.000 We get to be like God, live out the image of God that we were meant to do. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:26.000 We have this by the spirit. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:29.000 So we don't obey because there's a list of things to do. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:34.000 We obey because God is good and we get the privilege of becoming like him. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:38.000 So we couldn't do it, but Jesus did it. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:40.000 And now you can do it also by the spirit. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:43.000 That's the gospel that Paul defends in Galatians. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:46.000 We couldn't keep God's law, but Jesus did it for us. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:51.000 He became a curse for us, hanging on the tree. 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:54.000 And now we are free to walk and live by the spirit. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:55.000 Okay. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:56.000 So how do we do it? 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:57.000 How do we do this? 00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:01.000 We can do it by the spirit, but how do we rely on him? 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:05.000 Verse 16 says this, it describes it like this, to walk by the spirit. 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:10.000 Walking by spirit means actively following him, keeping in step with him. 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.000 Verse, I think 23, 24, 25. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:15.000 Wow. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:16.000 Yeah. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:17.000 Keeping in step with him. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:22.000 Um, yeah, actively following him as he guides our hearts. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:25.000 The spirit changes our hearts. 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:27.000 He tugs at our desires. 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:29.000 We see this in verse 17. 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:31.000 There's, there's talk of desires. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:32.000 There's, there's two competing desires. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:36.000 There's the desires of the flesh, our sinful nature, and the desires of the spirit. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.000 They are opposed to each other. 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:41.000 They are at war to keep us from doing what we want to do. 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:49.000 And the way we, when we're sin, when we're tempted by the desires of the flesh, the way to fight this is by the competing desires of the spirit. 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:50.000 Right? 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:53.000 Let's look at the fruit of the spirit and see that the spirit changes our desires. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:54.000 Right? 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:55.000 First with, with love. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:57.000 All of us love something. 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:00.000 But the problem is that we, we love wrong things. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:06.000 If we look at the list in verse 19, these come from misplaced love, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:15.000 Those come from a love of self, a selfishness, love of satisfying our lustful cravings rather than a love for people created in the image of God. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:21.000 Amnesty, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy. 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:26.000 Those come from a love of our own interests or a love of being correct, being right. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:33.000 Love for our own power and position rather than a love for others, for seeking the good of others. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:36.000 And the spirit changes what we love. 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:41.000 He opens our eyes to see that sin doesn't, it's tempting, but it doesn't lead anywhere. 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:42.000 It leads to death. 00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:44.000 He opens our eyes. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:51.000 The spirit helps us to see that God is good, that he, that he leads us to love what is good and hate what is evil. 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:53.000 And that's why we should obey him. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:56.000 Because the spirit leads us with new love. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:57.000 We're not under the law. 00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:00.000 Verse 18 said, if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law. 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.000 We're not shackled to, to obey the law, like a weight on our shoulders. 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:10.000 The law is against us when it's opposed to what we want to do, when it's opposed to desires, when we're following the desires of the flesh. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:19.000 But when we love God, his commands are like guides that we freely follow, like rollercoaster tracks so that we can do loop-de-loops rather than falling off the tracks. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:26.000 Or like the kite string that holds us so that we don't fly off and drift away, but that we can, we can be free to fly. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:33.000 Staying in the presence of God, because in his presence, there's fullness of joy and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:39.000 And we can repeat this exercise, seeing how the spirit changes our desires and all the fruit. 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:42.000 I'll skip over them and highlight self-control now. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:48.000 It's important to realize that our self-control comes through new desires. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:54.000 Verse 16 says, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:25:01.000 Self-control and Christian obedience, they don't come by following rules and it's getting close to the line of what God says as possible. 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:05.000 Maybe I can't go to the website, but I'll scroll through this feed instead. 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:06.000 That's okay, right? 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:07.000 No, that won't work. 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:10.000 We can't get by with sin management like that. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:16.000 That's happy with just getting as close as possible, craving the sin, but getting as close as possible to the limit. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:19.000 Self-control comes from new desires. 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:25.000 It's only when we taste the sweetness of God that you gag when you taste sin. 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:30.000 Or when you see a seafood buffet, you don't want to be eating potato chips anymore. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.000 There's a better taste. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:39.000 Walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:40.000 Right? 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:42.000 Sin is like weeds in a garden that chokes out fruit. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:45.000 And the normal state of affairs in this world is that the weeds win. 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:48.000 The weeds will just destroy the fruit, kill them. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:51.000 But the fruit of the spirit is a supernatural fruit. 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:52.000 It's a different sort of fruit. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:56.000 The fruit of the spirit grows and grows and grows and pushes out and kills all the weeds. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:58.000 That's how we fight sin. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:02.000 We fight sin by cultivating the fruit of the spirit, by walking by the spirit. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:09.000 And my experience is that the closer I am with God, the more I love him, the more I grow in the fruit of the spirit. 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:14.000 I can't worship God for his patience and then turn around and be impatient with others. 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:16.000 Right? 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:18.000 I can't love God without loving others. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:20.000 So we can cultivate the fruit of the spirit. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:25.000 One way to do this is by cultivating our love for God, our relationship with him. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:26.000 And how do we do this? 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:32.000 God gives us means of grace to do this means by which we can experience more of what Jesus bought for us. 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:38.000 Such as prayer, reading the word, the fellowship of gathered believers. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:46.000 So those aren't laws to be followed, but ways by which we can experience more of God and cultivate the fruit of the spirit. 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:47.000 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:48.000 So we can do these things. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:59.000 Go and pray, read the word, gather with believers, encourage one another, not as law to be followed, but just to enjoy God more, to enjoy more of his grace and fight sin. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.000 That's how we fight sin by cultivating our relationship with God. 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:10.000 And we also need to follow the prompting of the spirit throughout the day constantly. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:14.000 See, we're not simply passively led by the spirit. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:17.000 We have to actively follow him also. 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:19.000 It's the spirit and us working together. 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:22.000 We see this in verse 17 that there's competing desires. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:26.000 The desires of the spirit and of the flesh are opposed to each other. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:28.000 They're contrary to each other at war. 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:33.000 We're at war and constantly we need to choose to follow the spirit. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:35.000 You have to choose one. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:40.000 So follow him, follow, listen to his voice and follow his prompting. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:47.000 When you bump into maybe your aunt that's hard to love, or this is coworker that you were always impatient with, or there's this report you're preparing. 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:50.000 You're tempted to be unfaithful in you have a choice. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:56.000 If you're in Christ, the spirit, he dwells in us and he's, he's prompting us. 00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:57.000 He'll convict us. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:27:58.000 He'll bring to mind what is good. 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:04.000 Maybe it's not what we want to do in our flesh, but he'll, he'll, he'll remind us of what is good. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:06.000 And we can choose to follow him. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:07.000 Listen to his voice. 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:09.000 And this gets, this comes with practice. 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:12.000 This becomes easier as we choose daily to follow the spirit. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:13.000 That's how we're transformed. 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:14.000 Right? 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:19.000 Romans 12 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. 00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:25.000 The renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:28.000 It's just transformations, testing that comes with time. 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:36.000 It takes daily transformation practice to discern the will of God, to hear the voice of the spirit, to walk by the spirit and keep in step with him. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:36.000 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:38.000 And sometimes we do fail. 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:41.000 Sometimes we will choose the desires of the flesh, but we have this promise. 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:48.000 If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:56.000 So all that being said, to close, I spent the last six years, as Julian said, working in finance. 00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:03.000 And every day when I walked into work, the temptation I faced was that I was surrounded by money. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:05.000 Maybe that's the same for some of you here too. 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:06.000 Right? 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:08.000 I was given power to control money. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.000 I was surrounded by people who knew money and offered money. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:15.000 There's the temptations of power and money right there. 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.000 You can be big and influential. 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:20.000 You can be well liked. 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:21.000 You can be accomplished. 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:23.000 You can live in comfort. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:24.000 You can sit back and relax. 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:27.000 If only you had more money, you could be well known. 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:33.000 How do you hold onto the faith when you're surrounded in this environment? 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:38.000 How do you avoid being choked out by the cares of the world, this deceitfulness of riches? 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:40.000 And for me, I needed God. 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:43.000 Without him, I know I'm dead. 00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:45.000 The temptation is too strong. 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:50.000 We're, as we said last week, fighting the spiritual battle and we need to put on the armor of God. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:53.000 You can't go into battle without the armor. 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:59.000 I needed to walk by the spirit to fight off the desires of the flesh. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:05.000 I needed a habit of delighting myself in the Lord in the morning of cultivating that relationship with him through prayer, reading the word. 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:07.000 I needed the encouragement of the gathered church. 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:10.000 I need to pray throughout the day. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:15.000 And to fight temptation, you need these things too. 00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:22.000 And God gives them to you, not as commands to be followed, but as a good gift so that you can grow in the fruit of the spirit. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:26.000 Because the only way to stand firm against temptation, it's not by following the law. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:28.000 By saying, I'm not going to do this. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:32.000 I'm going to put this off by my own strength, but it's by putting on something better. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:35.000 By seeking God, wanting more of him. 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:36.000 To love God more than the things of the world. 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:39.000 That's the only way to fight the desires of the flesh. 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:42.000 And I, by no means, did this perfectly. 00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:46.000 There's some times where I went through the whole day sitting at my desk, watching the stock markets. 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:49.000 Stocks go up and down and didn't think about God once. 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:51.000 Let him know and pray. 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:53.000 There are days when that happened. 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:56.000 There are stretches of time when I didn't read my Bible. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:58.000 There are times, yes, when I did love money. 00:30:58.000 --> 00:30:59.000 I craved it. 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:00.000 I wanted more of it. 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:01.000 That happened. 00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:04.000 There are stressful times when I lacked peace. 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:09.000 When I was anxious, I lacked peace looking at all the work I had to do. 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:12.000 And there are times when I wasn't patient, kind, and gentle with my coworkers. 00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:16.000 When I snapped at them when something messed up and I had to apologize to them. 00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:17.000 Right? 00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:21.000 And that's why I'm glad that I'm not saved by my works. 00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:26.000 I'm not saved by works of the law, but just saved purely by grace through faith in Christ. 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:28.000 Purely by what Jesus had done for me. 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:31.000 Because if it was up to me, I'd be dead. 00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:32.000 And I need the spirit. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:34.000 I need the spirit to free me. 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:38.000 Bear the fruit that God demands because I can't do it on my own. 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:43.000 So why do we obey God? 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:45.000 It's because we believe in him. 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:47.000 We believe that Jesus died for us and we love him. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.000 We obey him. 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:50.000 How do we obey? 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.000 By walking by the spirit, by following the leading of the spirit, by his empowering, 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:58.000 actively choosing his way over the desires of the flesh. 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:02.000 We listen to his voice when we're tempted. 00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:03.000 We seek him. 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:07.000 We build this relationship with him through the means of grace, prayer, reading the word, 00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:09.000 fellowship, worship, so on. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:12.000 That's how we cultivate the fruit of the spirit. 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:16.000 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:17.000 Let's grow in all these things. 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:19.000 That's how we fight sin. 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:20.000 That's how we obey God. 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:22.000 So, so let us walk by the spirit. 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:24.000 Choose to do this daily, constantly. 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:28.000 Walk by the spirit and put to death the desires of the flesh. 00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:30.000 Let's do this together. 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:31.000 Let's pray. 00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:32.000 Let's pray for this. 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:37.000 God, we worship you. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:39.000 You are good. 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:43.000 You are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:45.000 And we did none of these things. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:47.000 We could not do anything on our own. 00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:49.000 We just rebelled against you. 00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:51.000 But Lord, we praise you that you loved us so much. 00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:53.000 You sent your son, Jesus, to die for us. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:57.000 To bear the curse, to become the curse for our sake. 00:32:58.000 --> 00:32:59.000 And you give us your spirit. 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:00.000 You raise us to life. 00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:08.000 You empower us to freely follow you, to live out your design, to have life to the full. 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:12.000 Help us to follow you, knowing that you are good. 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:18.000 Free us from being shackled to the law by following you as a list of rules and commands. 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:20.000 You give us commands and they are good. 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:21.000 And you give us your spirit. 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:22.000 You don't leave us on your own. 00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:25.000 But you guide us. 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:28.000 You produce in us the fruit that you demand. 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:30.000 Lord, we praise you for this. 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.000 And we pray that this week, we would walk by spirit. 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:36.000 We would fight the desires of the flesh. 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:38.000 And you would show us practically how to do this. 00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:41.000 To bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, all those things. 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:43.000 We can't do it on our own. 00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:44.000 So we need you. 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:45.000 That's why we come to you in prayer. 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:47.000 We have confidence because you're faithful. 00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:49.000 You promise us all this in Jesus name. 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:50.000 Amen. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:51.000 Amen. 00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:54.000 Let's round of applause for Gabe. 00:33:57.000 --> 00:33:59.000 I just want to honor this man as well. 00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:00.000 This week has been crazy. 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:01.000 He's been moving. 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:04.000 He had his last work day on Friday. 00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:07.000 I met one of his colleagues on Tuesday, just me from England. 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:10.000 And he said, oh, I heard about this guy called Gabe Wong. 00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:13.000 He's going to leave this amazing job to go be a priest. 00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:16.000 I'm like, kind of, yeah. 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:18.000 But he's going to serve the church for sure. 00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:23.000 But yeah, the priest, Reverend Wong, one day. 00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:26.000 Yeah, honor you for sharing on a crazy week. 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:30.000 But yeah, if I had to give an example of someone who lived out the fruit of the Spirit, 00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:31.000 who would be one of them? 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:33.000 But I want to embarrass him today. 00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:35.000 He's already done such an amazing job. 00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.000 I wanted to share a story about another dear friend of mine to wrap up. 00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:41.000 Dear friend of Stephen's, actually. 00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:43.000 I got to know him maybe three years ago. 00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:45.000 His name is David Ho. 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:53.000 And this is a story about someone who Gabe just talked about, who loves God more than anything this world can offer. 00:34:53.000 --> 00:34:54.000 Some of you have heard this story. 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:55.000 Some of you have met him. 00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.000 The early Alpha course had a chance to hear his testimony in person. 00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:03.000 You know, there's just some people who just oozes the fruit of the Spirit. 00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:04.000 You know those people? 00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:06.000 Like, I look at Aaron. 00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:08.000 He just oozes this gentleness. 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:10.000 I look at Danny. 00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:13.000 He oozes this patience and kindness. 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:16.000 I see Gracie and Rebecca just shaking their heads. 00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:18.000 I see the fruit. 00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:19.000 I see the fruit. 00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:20.000 I call you. 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:21.000 I see you, bro. 00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:22.000 I see the fruit. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:23.000 And he's like... 00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:25.000 Lord help us. 00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:28.000 And David Ho, he was this type of man. 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:29.000 He had the fruits of the Spirit. 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:31.000 I had never encountered that in my life. 00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:34.000 The quick story is, I met him three years ago. 00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:36.000 It was two days before Christmas. 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:38.000 It was 22nd of December. 00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:45.000 I got a call from David's sister-in-law, who I met actually at another dear friend's funeral, Em. 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:48.000 And she said, hey, Joe, I was at Em's funeral. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:50.000 And my brother-in-law is really, really sick. 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.000 He's only got probably a few weeks, maybe a month or two to live. 00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:56.000 Would you come and visit him? 00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:58.000 And Alex and I had plans that day. 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:01.000 And we're like, okay, we'll drop everything and we'll go. 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:03.000 And we went to his house. 00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:05.000 And as we walked in, I met David. 00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:07.000 He was a frail man at the time. 00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:09.000 He wore a woolly hat. 00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:12.000 And he looked like a man who only had a few weeks to live. 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:15.000 And I said, hey, how can I help you? 00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:17.000 How can we pray for you? 00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:19.000 I had no idea the story he was going to share me. 00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:27.000 But the summary really was, the night before, a bit of context, he's a practicing Buddhist. 00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:32.000 He was meditating two, three hours as he was, as something he did normally. 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:35.000 And he uses a YouTube video sometimes to meditate. 00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:38.000 And he saw this YouTube ad that said, 00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:40.000 Feng Shui Sifu Sen Yeo Chu. 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:43.000 A Buddhist master converts to Christianity. 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:45.000 And out of the blue, he clicks on it. 00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:47.000 Maybe it's Holy Spirit-led. 00:36:47.000 --> 00:36:49.000 So Holy Spirit moves through YouTube as well. 00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:51.000 And he clicked it. 00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:56.000 And he watched this testimony of this Feng Shui Sifu for 45 minutes straight. 00:36:56.000 --> 00:37:06.000 And he told me, everything that that guy said made such more sense and gave me more peace and more clarity than anything I've done before. 00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:10.000 And immediately, he literally listened to the testimony. 00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:11.000 He went out of the house. 00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:13.000 He took out all the idols or any Feng Shui stuff. 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:14.000 And he threw it away. 00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:17.000 And he told his wife, from this day on, this household, we're Christians. 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:19.000 We follow the way we follow Jesus. 00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:23.000 Now find me some Christian to come and pray for me tomorrow. 00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:27.000 And yeah, unfortunately, Gabe was still working. 00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:28.000 The priest was busy. 00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:35.000 So they somehow found my number and we went and we, he's like, I just want you to pray for me. 00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:37.000 I just want to become a Christian. 00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:41.000 And as an evangelist, these are the five words we yearn to hear. 00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:42.000 I want to become a Christian. 00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:43.000 How do I do? 00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:50.000 And so it was just the most beautiful moment of just sharing the gospel of Jesus, the way, the life, and the cross, the Holy Trinity. 00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:53.000 And he accepted Christ on the spot. 00:37:53.000 --> 00:38:04.000 And he said to me face to face, and Alex was there, and he said, look, now that I know my Creator, now that I know why I'm alive, I'm definitely now ready to die. 00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:06.000 He had complete peace. 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:11.000 And I sat there thinking, man, this guy is like in spiritual age, just a newborn. 00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:15.000 And he's sitting, telling me face to face that he's ready to go and see the Creator. 00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:21.000 And in the background, I just remember Stephen's Godson's four year old, two year old at the back. 00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:23.000 But this man meant it. 00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:26.000 He's like, I'm ready to see my Creator, if that's what it means. 00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:28.000 And he was at peace. 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:31.000 And we talked about how do we bear fruit? 00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:33.000 It's this complete surrender. 00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:36.000 That moment he surrendered his life like I've never seen before. 00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:41.000 I've met people who have been in the church for 10, 40, 50 years that aren't fully surrendered yet. 00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:43.000 And they wonder why they're not bearing fruit. 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:45.000 But I saw David. 00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:46.000 I saw that full surrender he had. 00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:48.000 There was nothing in this world holding him. 00:38:48.000 --> 00:38:51.000 He had an incredible job that many people would envy. 00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:53.000 Many young people would reply for it, just like Gabe's job. 00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:56.000 Yet he said, that is just so secondary right now. 00:38:56.000 --> 00:38:57.000 I know my Creator. 00:38:57.000 --> 00:38:58.000 I know who He is. 00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:00.000 And I'm loved by Him. 00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:03.000 And I just looked at the calendar. 00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:06.000 I was like, okay, let's just maximize the time we have. 00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:09.000 I think we did two or three Bible studies every week. 00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:10.000 We went through Alpha. 00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:11.000 We went through Christianity Explore. 00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:13.000 We went through all the scriptures. 00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:16.000 And he would carry that same discipline that he had before. 00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:18.000 Two, three hours a day in meditation. 00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:21.000 But he would now read the scripture two, three hours a day. 00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:24.000 I mean, how many of us do that here? 00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:26.000 Again, maybe he just gave. 00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:29.000 But really, it's just this discipline that he had. 00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:31.000 He carried through. 00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:35.000 And again, it's just this works of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit. 00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:38.000 He had discipline before, but it wasn't producing fruit. 00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:42.000 But now, after this act of surrender, he was continuing this discipline, 00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:44.000 but he was bearing fruit. 00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:48.000 And every week I met him, he was just, he just got the gospel. 00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:49.000 He was growing in it. 00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:50.000 I could see the fruit. 00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:53.000 I literally had the first rose seed, and Stephen could share. 00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:57.000 He saw his best friend just become this new incredible father, 00:39:57.000 --> 00:39:59.000 incredible friend, incredible husband. 00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:03.000 And, you know, three months down the line, I noticed, hey, you're getting a bit chubbier. 00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:05.000 Your hair's growing back. 00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:07.000 And, you know, what's the doctor saying? 00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:09.000 And he went in to see the doctor the next week. 00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:14.000 And the doctor was like, you know, the cancer cells are going down drastically. 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:17.000 In fact, your health is going to be back to normal soon. 00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:20.000 And the doctor didn't have an explanation. 00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:25.000 Now, all of us might think, oh, it's because he became a Christian, so God saved him. 00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:27.000 Not once did David see that. 00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:31.000 David didn't count that because I surrendered, God blessed me and healed me. 00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:34.000 No, he just said, wow, God's given me extra time. 00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:38.000 I'm going to use every day, every week that I have to share my testimony to people. 00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:40.000 Is it that difference? 00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.000 The world, when we get given amazing bonus or we win the lottery, we're going to spend it on ourself. 00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:46.000 We're going to say we earned it. 00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:50.000 But no, the first thought he was is, I want to, how can I share more to my bank of friends? 00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.000 How can I share more to people I invest for? 00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:58.000 I remember sharing him even last year, Alex and I got given this sweet house deal. 00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:01.000 Like it's pretty much free rent living near Wan Chai. 00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:04.000 Naturally, we could be like, oh, we can just live it to us. 00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:05.000 Like just use it ourselves. 00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:10.000 There's a playroom, there's a clubhouse, everything we dreamed of better than a walk up that we were in before. 00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:16.000 But Alex and I, we just said, and I told David, I remember, I was like, how can I use this to bless others? 00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:18.000 And how can I host this? 00:41:18.000 --> 00:41:20.000 Maybe half the people here have been over to have dinner. 00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.000 Half a dozen of you have stayed over and lived with us for a season. 00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:25.000 Like, how do we give it away? 00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:27.000 It's not about us just to keep to ourselves. 00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:29.000 Because we didn't earn it. 00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:30.000 And we recognize that. 00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:33.000 And I think David postured that his whole life. 00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:38.000 And fast forward, two extra years, God gave him. 00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:41.000 It was about six, seven months today, he passed away. 00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:46.000 And the last month, two months, was really hard. 00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:49.000 And cancer came back and it came hard. 00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:52.000 And his body was, he was in so much pain. 00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:55.000 And you can ask Stephen, you can ask his wife. 00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:57.000 Not once did he complain to God. 00:41:57.000 --> 00:42:00.000 Not once did he say, I don't deserve this. 00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:05.000 Two days before he did pass away, I was on my usual Zoom and Bible study. 00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:07.000 And as always, we'd pray for healing. 00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:10.000 And we'd do the prayer and we'd finish praying. 00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:13.000 And he said, remember, Joe, I was healed two years ago. 00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:15.000 I was healed two years ago. 00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:17.000 I've got all the healing I have. 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:19.000 I'm ready to see my Creator. 00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:25.000 And even in his baptism, he shared, you know, the doctor gave me a few months left to live. 00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:27.000 The doctor's right. 00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:29.000 I've died and I've come back. 00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:35.000 And in that baptism, my brother Stephen came to faith and many others were touching and making as well. 00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:42.000 And again, so this is just a story of someone who oozed the fruit of the Spirit into the very last day. 00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:45.000 There was not one day that he relied on his flesh. 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:47.000 His flesh was literally weak. 00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:55.000 And I pray that we each here can learn that before we get to a point where we can learn to humble before we're humbled. 00:42:55.000 --> 00:43:00.000 That we can learn to bear fruit and surrender now that we start yielding the fruit. 00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:02.000 Because on that funeral, I can tell you this. 00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:07.000 We didn't share about the amazing, amazing, many business deals he did, investments he did. 00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:09.000 We shared about who he was. 00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:18.000 It wasn't about the works of the flesh, but the fruit of the Spirit. 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:23.000 And we shared about his patience, his kindness, his gentleness, his self-control until the end. 00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:30.000 And again, the way of the world is always focused about the works of the flesh. 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:37.000 I'm just thinking, even if a new couple and you're dating a new person, Trevor's girlfriend, 00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:40.000 and how do you explain Trevor to your parents? 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:43.000 Oh, I'm dating this guy. He's a doctor. 00:43:43.000 --> 00:43:45.000 That's going to be the first thing that we always say. 00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:50.000 It's very rare that we're going to be like, Trevor's got this incredible patience. 00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:52.000 He's incredibly gentle and self-controlled. 00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:55.000 That's not the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about people. 00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:58.000 We immediately run to what they do, what they do well. 00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:00.000 Teresa's nodding her head. 00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:08.000 And so I encourage you, church, encourage you, family, to how do we be a community that doesn't care so much about what we do in the world, 00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:10.000 but who we are as people. 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:13.000 We're coming up to one year now as the gathering here in the space. 00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:17.000 I look out, and it's not about the numbers. 00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:19.000 It's not about the numbers. 00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:21.000 It's how healthy we are. 00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:22.000 And how do we know if we're healthy? 00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:24.000 Are we bearing fruit? 00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:29.000 And the final thing I'll say before I invite Alex, my wife, if you're hearing this, get ready. 00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:32.000 How do we know we're healthy? 00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:34.000 Are we bearing fruit? 00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:36.000 Focus on the root. 00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:39.000 If we can focus on the root, God will look after the fruit. 00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:41.000 Are our roots healthy? 00:44:41.000 --> 00:44:44.000 Because the deeper the root, the healthier the root, the healthier the fruit. 00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:47.000 And I'm speaking to myself here. 00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:50.000 Sometimes I know there's areas of my life I'm not fully surrendered yet. 00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:55.000 And the fruit that I'm harvesting, they're not the healthiest fruit that I hope to have. 00:44:55.000 --> 00:45:00.000 And I hope that as a community, it's not about how many small groups we have or how many people come on a Sunday. 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:01.000 It's how many fruits we produce. 00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:08.000 Because the fruits that we bear, we go out to the workplace, to the hospital, to the banks, to AIA, to around the university campus. 00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:12.000 We carry fruit in a world that is starving of fruit. 00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:15.000 Every room we enter, people are dying to see fruit. 00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:16.000 They're hungry. 00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:17.000 They're starving without knowing. 00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:20.000 That's why they're running and stressed and anxious. 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:25.000 But when we walk in with literally a bowl of fruit, just ready to share. 00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:27.000 And that's what's going to change the city. 00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:29.000 That's what's going to change this country. 00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:30.000 That's what's going to change this world. 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:33.000 And so I hope that's an encouragement to you. 00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:40.000 And next week, James is going to be back and he's going to be talking about a sermon, a new series on prayer. 00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:42.000 How do we surrender? 00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:44.000 How do we grow roots? 00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:45.000 Prayer. 00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.000 That's one of the things I can, like practically, we can do. 00:45:49.000 --> 00:46:02.000 And in this very room, six days ago, on a Monday morning, 7am, Wesley Ma, one of our favorite people in the gathering, Alex Lee, Aidan Cheng, one of the least quiet people in the gathering. 00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:05.000 We're all here, 7am. 00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:07.000 Actually, Aidan and I got here at 8. 00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:12.000 But Wes and Alex prayed for a whole hour on their own in silence, 7 to 8. 00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:16.000 8 to 9, Aidan and I came and we prayed as a group. 00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:26.000 And then we had breakfast and we just thought, wow, Aidan, wasn't that the most amazing morning that we've had in months, maybe even years? 00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:27.000 We were tired. 00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:28.000 We were tired. 00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:31.000 I tell you, the flesh was weak, but our spirit was full. 00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:34.000 And we went into the office, like just ready to go. 00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:36.000 And this whole week, we were filled with the spirit. 00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:38.000 And there's just something so sweet that we could do together. 00:46:38.000 --> 00:46:39.000 And this is Wes himself. 00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:41.000 He's saying, hey, can we do this every two weeks? 00:46:41.000 --> 00:46:43.000 We don't want, yeah. 00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:47.000 Yeah, maybe every one of you come, I doubt it, but you're welcome. 00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:50.000 If we start that, if we launch that, we'll be sure to tell that. 00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:52.000 But this space was so peaceful on Monday morning. 00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:54.000 And we prayed. 00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:55.000 Fast forward two days. 00:46:55.000 --> 00:47:00.000 On Wednesday night, we had Mihi, Aririan Mihi, leading us into a time of prayer and worship. 00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:08.000 And we had 35 people come and we had first half an hour of quiet praying and then the whole hour of Mihi leading us. 00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:11.000 And generally, for those who were there, it felt like it was 20 minutes. 00:47:11.000 --> 00:47:12.000 I looked at the clock. 00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:13.000 I'm like, that's an hour? 00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:18.000 Mihi just nonstop led in song, in prayer for an hour. 00:47:18.000 --> 00:47:25.000 I'm like, wow, how great it is to spend time together with our fellow brothers and sisters in the presence of God. 00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.000 So we're hoping to cultivate more of that in our gathering. 00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:30.000 We have midweek groups. 00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:33.000 I know Josh's group goes to some so-called prayer room. 00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:36.000 They spend a whole Saturday from 9 to 3 there praying before. 00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:44.000 We have another group, Gab's group, praying on a Thursday night at midnight, prophesying over each other, speaking words of encouragement and scripture over each other. 00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:46.000 Like these are happening. 00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:49.000 And I encourage you all to get involved. 00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:50.000 Join a small group. 00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:52.000 Join an interest group. 00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:53.000 Come to our prayer meetings. 00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:57.000 If you want healthy roots, this is a good place to start. 00:47:57.000 --> 00:48:04.000 And so as we come up for worship, I'm going to encourage us all just to reflect on one question as the band comes up. 00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:11.000 How healthy are our roots? 00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:13.000 And are we bearing fruit? 00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:17.000 And it's okay if we're not. 00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:20.000 And it's okay if we're, again, we're all in works in progress. 00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:25.000 But what areas in our life have we yet to surrender? 00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.000 The surrenderedness that David had completely for everything. 00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:34.000 The surrenderedness that Gabe had for his work and the love of money. 00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:35.000 Not begrudgingly. 00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:37.000 He wasn't doing it out of a commandment. 00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:39.000 He's doing it out of freedom. 00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:46.000 How beautiful it is when your children obey you out of love and freedom, not out of fear and trembling. 00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:50.000 And so what areas in our lives do we have to surrender more? 00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:55.000 And I pray as a church we can continue to bear fruit. 00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:56.000 Let's pray. 00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:06.000 Lord, as the Olympics is wrapping up, we are remembered and reminded. 00:49:07.000 --> 00:49:09.000 I mean, that we too are athletes. 00:49:09.000 --> 00:49:14.000 We too are in a race that is way more important than the Olympian. 00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:17.000 Way more important than the Olympics itself. 00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:24.000 Lord, that the Olympians may be running for a gold medal that lasts for a few years and worth a lot in Hong Kong. 00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:28.000 But we're running for a crown that lasts forever. 00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:37.000 We're working and running and disciplining ourselves for an eternal crown, for eternal reward. 00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:41.000 And so Lord, help us to fight the good fight of faith. 00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:55.000 But before you run in to fight and work hard, let us not forget that one small step before that is to surrender, to yield, to bear fruit. 00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:57.000 Lord, fruit cannot grow itself. 00:49:57.000 --> 00:49:58.000 It cannot force itself to grow. 00:49:58.000 --> 00:50:00.000 It can only yield. 00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:14.000 And so before we wake up early at 7am, before we stay late and don't go on the streets to do homeless missions, may we have this posture of surrender, recognizing that we can only bear fruit in you. 00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:19.000 And our fruit that comes from the inside out, not from the outside in. 00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:23.000 So Lord, let us be a community that cares about what happens on the inside. 00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:26.000 And from the inside, may we grow and bear fruit. 00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:28.000 In Jesus name we pray. 00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:29.000 Amen. 00:50:29.000 --> 00:50:30.000 Amen. 00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:31.000 Amen. 00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:32.000 Amen. 00:50:32.000 --> 00:50:33.000 Amen. 00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:34.000 Amen. 00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:35.000 Amen. 00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:36.000 Amen. 00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:37.000 Amen. 00:50:37.000 --> 00:50:38.000 Amen. 00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:39.000 Amen. 00:50:39.000 --> 00:50:40.000 Amen. 00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:41.000 Amen. 00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:42.000 Amen. 00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:43.000 Amen. 00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:43.000